A Candle Creek Kennels sled dog

WHEN FACED WITH THE PROSPECT of describing Kelowna, a winemaking and ski resort town surrounded by three mountain ranges and a lake in Canada’s Okanagan Valley, one is tempted to rely on juxtaposition: Napa meets Tahoe, Sideways meets Dirty Dancing, Ski Party meets Meatballs. Otherwise, conveying the scope of the place can be difficult. In valleys abutting a 68-mile-long lake fed by crystalline mountain streams sit nearly 30 wineries, 20 golf courses, countless running and biking trails, and a ski resort with some of the most pillowy powder in the world.

What the comparisons fail to capture, however, is that unlike Napa or Tahoe, Kelowna is a 1,120-square-mile playground that remains largely untouched by the other kids. You can taste wines poured by the vintners themselves, swoop down black diamond runs all by yourself and procure a lakeside table without making reservations a week in advance. As one local ski instructor puts it, “I think I waited in a lift line for five minutes … once?” Napa meets Tahoe meets Narnia. There. That should do it.